Hi to all Rataters!
After the communication of the non-edition of the festival in 2019, we were overwhelmed with encouragement and proposals from many, to continue the “Ratatà” project. We have therefore decided, in collaboration with the Municipality of Macerata, to think of a biennial Ratatà program to return to April 2020 with the format that everyone knows.

The 2019 edition will be MUTA, in the meaning of SILENT CHANGE, and will develop into a series of events distributed throughout the year, from April to December in which we will present top-level projects in preparation for the 2020 edition.

The first appointment of Ratatà MUTA 2019 will be from 12 to 14 April, with two exhibitions and three workshops linked to the RiVolti and Bordar os Sonhos projects, by the art director and curator Monica Monachesi, the Brazilian artist Flavia Bomfim and the photographer Barbara Rigon, to the Ancient Forni of Macerata.
On the evening of Friday 12 April, a party is scheduled at the CSA Sisma, with concerts and live sets being defined.
Soon the complete program of this first MUTA stage!

We thank you for the support you have shown us in these months and we look forward to many!

Hello to all friends! This official communication is to inform you that the 2019 edition of the Ratatà Festival will not be there.Sorry if we did not hear for many months and we have not responded to the countless requests in this regard. After five very intense years, in which we tried to make a Festival that was also a poetic and political project, created and modeled on a territory and on the people who live there, but always with an international vision, we need to reflect on our future and to compare ourselves with the realities with which we have collaborated to find together some more sustainable solutions under different aspects.– Physically and conceptually it is no longer possible to continue to support an event of this magnitude on its own without public funding proportionate to the proposed cultural offer. –We are getting big and this thanks above all to all of you who have supported us in these years and that, hopefully, you will continue to believe in that horizontal project that is Ratata, made up of friends for friends.We hope to return in 2020 more loads of all time to celebrate worthily “the year of the mouse”, or rather the rat!Prepare the traps.

Give your work or digital image to support the GUS solidarity projects in Rojava. The selected work will be used to promote and finance our ideas to rebuild Kobane.

The GUS in Rojava
From October 2017 we have opened an office in Kobane, the city that has heroically
resisted the invasion of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Our mission stems from the belief that the political experiment of the Kurdish people in
Rojava (a region located north of Syria) has universal value because it has helped to spread
and defend the principles of equality, inclusion, respect for people’s rights and respect of
nature.

The extraordinary resistance of female and male fighters gathered under the initials of YPJ
and YPG made sure that Kobane was liberated in 2015, but now Kobane needs our help to
stand up and rebuild. It’s time for reconstruction, it is necessary to face the difficulties of
the economic and political embargo of which Rojava is a victim. If it is true that the
fighters while defending Kobane also defended our freedom and our values, it is now up to
us to do something.

Our projects in Rojava, for which we ask you to participate, are two:
Peacetachios and MuziKobane.

Peacetachios
The pistachio tree is a resistant tree, in the partisan sense of the word. Survives in adverse
conditions, withstands drought and very high desert temperatures. It embodies life where
we would only have aridity. Just like the resistant partisans of Rojava, these trees bring life
where others have sowed only death.

The cultivation of pistachio, together with that of the olive tree, is at the base of the rural
economy of Rojava. From here, then, we must start again.

The GUS has made a commitment to recover 20,000 pistachio trees damaged by the
devastating fury of ISIS that has sabotaged the wells and set the plants on fire. We want to

bring life back to the villages west of Kobane where these 20.00 trees are grown,
supporting agricultural cooperatives, rebuilding the wells and protecting the Pistachio of
Kobane, Pistachio of Peace.

MuziKobane
Instruments of hope: music is the beating heart of the millennial Kurdish culture. Through
the music the union of the community is defended, the values of the revolution are
conveyed and the morale of the people tormented by war is held high. There is music
whenever friends meet up in front of a tea, there is music at parties, marches, funerals. For
every battle won in Rojava a song resounds, for every fallen comrade there is a melody
that reminds him.

The GUS, with this project, wants to give the possibility to the Baki Xido Music Academy
of Kobane to start again its didactic activities. Our intent is to buy back the instruments
destroyed by ISIS fanatics in their attempt to silence the music.

What we ask you
We ask you to feel a pistachio tree burned in the desert or a broken-skinned drum that can
no longer set the rhythm of the dance.
We ask you to put your talent at the service of one of these two projects and to give us an
image that you can convey their message.
Send us a file in vertical format in 300 dpi, in colour.
To all the received images we will give visibility on our website and social medias,
mentioning obviously the author and the title of the work.
The images we believe are more effective and representative of the spirit of the projects
will be used to produce small merchandising gadgets such as T-shirts, stickers, mugs,
bookmarks (we willingly accept your advice and your ideas) to convey the project and
support fundraising.

Centrala – every book matters is born on 2007 in Poland, specialising in comic books. Since there, you grew up considerably, expanding yourself in Berlin and London. What changed from your beginning activities? What are your future plans?

You are very well informed – Centrala every book matters was born in 2007 in Poland, later on in 2014 we started publishing in England and from 2017 in Czech Republic. Throughtout the years we were learning from our mistakes. Unfortunatelly we could not take all of the ambitious project we came across because of the reality of the publishing world. However we did not give up and we still create comic book culture and publish smart comics about life in a very beatiful, carefull manner.

What are the comic genres you prefer and why? How a normal comic author could be noticed from you?

Our comic books are always connected with reality. We are publishing artists from East Europe and from Scandinavian countries. We are looking for new artists, regardless of the fact that unknown artist are often not recognised, unappreciated and rewarded for their achivments. We do not focus on the winning comic books. We are bringing new oportunities and giving new chances for talented new beginers. This is what Frame Festival is all about. There are two competitiones coming up. First one is for the new short comic book, the theme is ‘Last Tree’. Second one ‘ Frame Pitching’. From all sent enquires and ideas for coming comic books 9 artist are choosen. The chosen artist have free flight and accomodetion on Praque and the winner will be published in few languages from East Europe, as well as English.

Why did you decide to come in Ratatà festival?

We decided to come to Ratata Festival because we have the urge to get to know the italian festivales. We hope that our comic books will be welcomed there. Besides we are friends with the Canicola publishers and we very much appreciate their work. We hope we will get the chance to get to know more wonderful intalian arists.

Can you send a greeting for Macerata and Ratatà?

A very warm welcome from Centrala every books matters to all artists, publishers and visitors of Ratata fesitval.

The story behind this project is so fascinating, when agricolture and art meet themselves and give life to something unique, based on paperworks. But when Catharina and Natan met? Why did you decide to start this project?

It was through handmade paper (an international congress in Holland, 1994) that Natan and Catharina met. A paper love connection that later shaped the name “nightcloud” in Italy! One of us (Natan) discovered paper in the 80s while listening to a talk on the Israeli radio – his formation in visual arts and his practice in farming made him discover that processing plants were the perfect overlap of both fields, of art and agriculture. Catharina came across paper in the Hamburg University library, experiencing touch and smell of different plant papers from all over the world. Her studies in art history, restauration and art therapy made her learn and use this medium.

Your works include also jelwery and other paperworks. You organize workshops for childern. So i want to ask you: how do they interact with these initiatives?

It is important to say that we organize workshops for whoever is interested in the field, not only for children! Age not important, background not important — the shared experience (preparing the natural fibers, sheet formation, history, art making in different forms) is the clue to the fun cooperation… it lies in the project, also in the time frame if the workshop has an impact, brings joy to others… a visit from a school class might give just a first taste of the big world of paper, a longer term activity can give experience in greater depth. A profound, longer term workshop series with interested participants is still desired on our part!

Why did you decide to enjoy Ratatà festival?

We know talented people participating and the festival luckily has a reputation of having “good vibes”!

Can you send a greeting for Macerata and Ratatà?

Hugs and kisses from the Sibilllini Mountains to Macerata — may visiting guests and participating artists alike enjoy Ratatà!

Paulina Tkacz is a brilliant polish illustrator based in Italy. Her works describe nature with personal style. What are your inspirations? How you were born artistically?

I have studied in Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Lodz (Poland) in the combined course of graphic design and applied graphics. Five years of composing black-and-white graphical images left a great impact on me. My illustrations are structured by the game of black and white and strong contrast. As you can see from my pictures, I create very detailed compositions and quite often they are of the very small size. I derive a great pleasure from working according to those two factors but I tend to choose small formats subconsciously. It is a matter of intuition. This tendency of mine stems from the very intense contact with artworks of the old masters of art (starting from medieval miniatures). In my high school I did a four-year-long course of Traditional Painting Technics and later I was working by an art restaurateur in northern Germany where we took care of the gothic cathedral with its wealth of paintings and sculptures storaged inside. All of those experiences remain for me very influential.

You are based in Italy so my question is simple: how long have you been living in Italy? How much well do you know italian language?

I am an illustrator and designer and since almost four years I live and work in region of Marche in Italy. My moving here was a matter of personal choice. Eighteen years ago during my first travel to Italy I didn’t expect to have a chance to come back here. Surprisingly a bunch of coincidences brought me here once again. Now I am happy to discover Bel Paese not just like a tourist but like a citizen. Every day I learn something new about it’s complex reality and a beautiful culture. And now I am the one who takes care of the little part of the italian heritage by doing an effort to communicate the value and beauty of Ecomuseo Villa Ficana in Macerata to the tourists from Italy and from abroad. I do speak Italian fluently! So please, do not hesitate to come and have a chat with me during Mostra Mecato in Mercato delle Erbe.

Why did you decide to enjoy Ratatà festival?

I find Ratata an amazing event, which gives the opportunity of confrontation in various levels. I really appreciate the direct contact with the public because it helps me to understand more about my art and it is an infinite source of inspiration. Numerous creatives who present their works on the Festival makes me really curious. After previous Ratata editions I’ve remained deeply moved by the range of surprising themes and the high level of craft and skills.

She defines herself as a functional neighbour. What is the meaning? Who is Diana Naneva and what is her artistic background?

Functional Neighbour is the drawing creature with everlasting motivation. It came out as a name when I was 17, being entirely obsessed and keen on being “functional” as worthy and useful for myself and others, “neighbour” as being close as possible. Other than that, I was born in Varna, Bulgaria started out as a Printmaking enthusiast, without any clue how things would turn out. Back in the days it was all about enjoying the worries and drawing. Some things haven’t changed, still enjoying the worries, still drawing. So far this got me into making more and exploring new ways of expression and telling my own stories. Recently I am more and more diving into the very slightly explored world of zines, comics and illustration. For the past few years I worked with several comic book writers, poets, small publishing houses and developed persistence and fondness for both short and long-term projects, collaborative and personal work as well. So far I published 3 books Independently. The first one was called “Escape Season” and it came as a Short Comic Anthology combining poetry with sequential art published in 2014. Second one came in 2016 “Regrets and Recreations” – an honest small tale told in 32 illustrations with lots of regrets and blue fire. Third one is my newest finished Artbook “Year of Brances” collecting most of my work done on the road and travelling around in 2017, being inspired by most controvertial or weird or lovely, or horrifying (or maybe all things at once) situations. Things I’m bringing with me on Ratata as well…

I like you drawing style. Who are your inspirations?

My inspiration comes usually from real life situations, relationships and conversations. I like to find hidden symbols and signs in surroundings. Whenever comes to personal work it has always been enjoyable to describe an emotion or a feeling without self-censorship.Usually it’s easiery for me to keep a Visual Diary and somehow illustrate my own opinion on a certain situation. I don’t believe I have the same power and freedom with words. When it comes to style itself, things that influenced me for the past few years were the works of Em Partridge, Aleksandra Waliszewska, Francesco Dossena, Anastasia Kim(Phobs) etc. I’m still being over and over impressed by fellow artists and locals as well.

Why did you decide to partecipate in Ratatà festival?

I like the premise and the concept of the festival.I found it as an interesting opportunity to meet new people, artists, styles and ways. I haven’t been to many zine fairs yet , but I’m always interested to see other points of view. Present my own work, see other people’s work, get inspired…Maybe all the usual stuff.

Can you send a greeting for Macerata and Ratatà?

Macerata and Ratata, you are both things I haven’t expirienced nor explored so the best is the yet to come right?

Alicia Baladan was born in Uruguay where she spent her childhood.
After a short time in Rio de Janeiro, she moved to Italy where she graduated from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. She attended several international animation-movie festivals and experimental arts conceived By Milan’s contemporary art archive “Care-off “.
In the last few years, she illustrates and writes focusing on the narrative aspects of her work.
In 2011 she was mentioned by the Jury for the “Best South-American Illustration artist 2010”, UP. Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, with the drawings taken from the book “A Guaranì tale”.
Her drawings from the book “An infant Sky” were also selected for “Illustrate 2011” in Portugal.
She is currently living and working in Brescia, Italy.

Antonio Vitale AKA Jester At Work is an Italian music producer from Pescara. After the debut “Lo-fi, back to tape” (Twelve Records, 2009) and the maturity album of “Magellano” (Twelve Records, 2012), Jester presents the new EP titled “A Beat Of a Sad Heart”, published in May by MILK – Minds In a Lovely Karma. The music of the Abruzzo singer-songwriter moves through emotional landscapes, including country blues, folk and songwriting’ skills of the highest level. Antonio is a lone wolf, who wails sensations and dresses in obscurity, between redemption and pain.Pandering to the great folk songwriters, first of all Mark Lanegan, “A Beat Of A Sad Heart” has an immediate, fluid and reassuring grip.

The project was created on the sixtieth anniversary of the launch
of the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft, on which the dog Laika was boarded.
It consists of eight illustrated stories, freely inspired by
one of the most significant events of the space race. The eights authors narrated the story of Laika in original and completely
personal ways, portraying her with always different
poetics and taste.
The stories are intentionally free of text, as to captivate the widest public possible.
The only texts (biographies and historical facts) are translated into Italian, English and Russian.
The entire volume is crafted in blue and gold, two colours present in all the styles of the stories and that remind of the space imagery.

Ratigher was born in 1978. His works have appeared in numerous independent magazines such as Lamette, Nervi, Monipodio, Inguine, on Vice Magazine, on Hobby Comics and on the monthly XL of La Repubblica. He was part of the group of cartoonists Super Amici, along with Maicol & Mirco, Dr. Pira, Tuono Pettinato and LRNZ, with whom he realized, among other things, Pic Nic, the first free comic book press, also covering the role of editor. He is the author of two cult works of Italian comics, Trama (2011) and Le ragazzine stanno perdendo il controllo, self-published with the method “sooner or later” and winner in 2015 of the Micheluzzi and Boscarato Awards. He wrote some episodes of Dylan Dog and in 2016 he participated with a story in the comic anthology La rabbia (Einaudi). In 2017 he published Pterodattilo Fortezza, an anthology of short stories published by Coconino Press and Sangue finto, his first collection of illustrations published by ZOOO.org. He teaches at the IED in Rome. From 2017, he is editorial director of Coconino Press.

SANGUE FINTO is a collection of illustrations presented in a rigorous black and white without any artifice, which highlights the many universes of RATIGHER page after page, restoring the peculiarity of the sign of one of the most visionary underground comics authors of recent years.

A volume of over 160 pages that constitutes the essential documentation of some past luster on the drawing boards to illustrate the absurd. An anthology “without history” that draws not only from the comics that made it famous, but also from posters, covers of disks and magazines, outrageous T-shirts, pages taken from glossy publications or simply photocopied … Sweet Dreams like diabetes or dark as pitch.

SANGUE FINTO by Ratigher is a self-production of the collective ZOOO Print & Press

– 20 × 26 cm

– 168 pages in black and white

– with color cover + silk screen printing

———————

ZOOO is a collective of illustrators with an aptitude D.I.O (Do It Ourselves), which takes care of and publishes its books, involving and inviting friends and artists, both Italian and international, who work in illustration, street art and graffiti. They have published with ZOOO: Alessandro Baronciani, Blu, Daniel Munoz, Davide Toffolo, Ericailcane, Escif, James Kalinda, Paper Resistance, Ratigher, Scarful.

I am 31 years old. I drew my first scribble in Dorgali, Sardinia.
I lived in Urbino where I studied Art, Illustration, Comics and Animated Cartoon. Today
I am a tireless drawer.
I drew for the GAP collective zine, for Tiny Pencil, Carla Cristofoli, Giovanni Darconza and for my books: Sa Mama e Sole; La signora e l’agnello; I racconti del giardino del re; Le filastrocche della maestra. The world of infancy makes me curious and I enjoy playing with children in my creative studio. I edited and printed their books: Fumetti; La Jana Maja; Un Leone a Dorgali; Talpi scava scava; John il coccodrillo.
I love cinema, live music, good books… either essays, diaries, the illustrated ones, the pop-up ones, those with holes,
those for children, the comic strips…
I am a decorator in the Openspace duo with the architect Andrea Fronteddu.

Samuele Canestrari is an illustrator from the Marche region born in 1996. He studied at Scuola del Libro in Urbino. He works with the Malamente magazine. He published “Cartoline da Fano” and “Cartoline dal Monte Busca” for the Internazionale magazine. In May 2017, he contributed to the CavallinoRivista collective book. In 2017 he also received the “Special prize” at the Animavì International Festival of Poetic Cinema of Pergola. “Gli uomini cane non hanno la coda” is his first comic book with Libri Somari, the publishing company that he established with Ahmed Ben Nessib.

He lives and works in Modigliana.

Ahmed Ben Nessib

Ahmed Ben Nessib is an illustrator from Tunisia born in 1992. He attended the EMCA in France and Scuola del Libro in Urbino, Italy. His drawings were published in several newspapers and magazines, such as Lo straniero and Internazionale. He contributed to the CavallinoRivista collective book. His first short film “EKART” is included in the fifth volume of the Animazioni, Cortometraggi Italiani Contemporanei DVDs. He published “Ekart//la tecnica del nuotatore”, his first comic book with Libri Somari (Donkey Books), the publishing company that he founded with Samuele Canestrari.

It lives and it works to Angoulême.

Abstract and presentation of the project
A friend of ours told us that donkeys can’t have four walls in their stable. One of the four walls must be open so that they can come and go as they wish. If there was a fourth wall, they would feel the need to hit it with their hooves until it falls. We can only say that we never were zealous students. Absences and warnings were piling up. We met each other at school and we finished it together. One of us was studying Comics and the other Animation. These two subjects share their being composed of a sequence of drawings. The space between the drawings has always been a starting point for us. Each in his own solitude, we saw in those spaces new drawings to make. These spaces led us to create books together. We build and assemble the drawings to evoke stories through the interstices that are created. We created both silent stories and stories made of images and words, but tales nonetheless. We found out that the professionals write scripts before books. This is why our books are donkeys.

IMPUBBLICABILE! is a photography project by Marco Criante and Francesco Torresi. It started in 2017 with the aim of becoming a record of the underground music culture in the Marche region and the social environment around it.
This environment, far from the dynamics typical of larger cities, is home to national and international bands and artists
who play in many venues, clubs, associations and festivals all around the region, from the coastline to the mountains. All these venues were founded on the need to make music and unlock the stalemate of the provincial areas.
Through a direct and diarylike photographic language, IMPUBBLICABILE! wishes to enhance and give visibility to a scenario that is often intentionally neglected, but that is too authentic to become part of the mass culture.
IMPUBBLICABILE! is a tribute to “independent” music and to all those who make it possible.

Flaccidia is 41 years old and currently lives in Macerata, where she was born, after many years spent in Rome to study and work.
She graphic designs for a living.
As a hobby, she draws, but also reads, looks out of her window, sleeps.
She rarely cooks but eats compulsively.
She loves cats, while loves humans a little less. However, she has some acquaintance here and there with whom she communicates always virtually.
She defines herself, and people agree with this, a modern misanthropist.

THE RAMBO is a trio from Lodi composed by J.Marsala (guitar, voice and samplers), Capa de Sangre (guitar) and Bang L.A. Desh (drums), producing a ferocious and frenetic cocktail of noise, garage-punk, no-wave and blues.
THE RAMBO was founded in 2013 as a duo (guitar/voice and battery) but soon became a trio when Al-Funk (synth) joined in. In 2014, they recorded their first album (FIRST BLOOD),
released by Il Verso del Cinghiale, Villa Inferno and Lepers Productions.
Their new album, THE STABBING (Cloadhead Records, Il Verso del Cinghiale, Inferno Villa and Wallace Records) was recorded and mixed by Luca Ciffo (Fuzz Orchestra) and riped by Nando Farro (Maybe I’M) between March and May 2016.

Noemi Vola – born in Bra (CN) in 1993, graduated in 2016 in the course of Comics and Illustration and in 2018 in the course of Illustration for the Publishing Industry at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. In 2014, she founded Blanca, a self-produced magazine for children, which includes illustrated stories and comic strips. In 2017, together with Martina Tonello, she founded MaPerò, a collective that takes care of grammatical injustices and other stuff. Among the several collaborations, the most recent is with Vogue Children, Biancoenero, Planeta Tangerina and Corraini editions. She lives and works in Turin with a bear and with many friendly earthworms.

Anna Masina lives and draws in Milan, where she works on illustrations, books and fabrics. She works mainly with pencils, temperas, inks and manual techniques of printing.

In 2014 she started playing with Red Boots, a label of small hand-bound illustrated books, with which she autonomously published some of her projects.

Ninamasina is her stage name, a play-on-letter that mixes and fuses name and last name in one single word.

title of the exhibition:

TREGUA

abstract and presentation of the project:

TREGUA (Truce) is the title of the last “Red Boots” publication, a zine that, through images, like an antidote, describes what happens when you get lost in the everyday craze and find out, at a certain point, that you are too far from yourself.

Red Boots is a small-size label of self-produced illustrated books, founded in 2014 by Ninamasina and her desire to try out new techniques, experiencing books in all its formats.

These books address a public without age limits, they are hand-bound or manufactured, and every copy is printed in limited edition, in different circulations according to the project.

The name Red Boots comes from an infancy memory: a pair of red rubber ankle boots with which you could jump on puddles, run and play, without worrying about getting dirty.

At the bookshop Bibidi Bobidi Book several original illustrations will be exhibited, a few prints and all the Red Boots books published from 2014 up to now.

For the festival, the author will also exhibit a series of thaumatropes inspired by her latest works.